You may note that my Seche is not in the normal bottle. That would because one of my kiddos dropped the bottle. I have no idea how they got it, but they did. So it is now housed in one of my empties.

I started this mani with Essie Protein Base and two coats of The Mighty Red Baron:

This is with no top coat. This color is freaking gorgeous. I had wanted it for a long time, but hadn’t pulled the trigger because I wasn’t quite sure it was what I wanted. I was stupid. It is perfect.

Once I stopped giving my nails googly eyes, I used M Polish to stamp the hearts with the Pueen plate then top coated with Seche:

This white does have a bit of pearl to it, which is why it seems to lean a bit more silver. This is one of my white prototypes and it has not yet received a name. Keep an eye for more swatches. They are starting to pop up!

I’m quite pleased with this mani. It was the perfect simple mani that i was hoping for, even if it does look like I am ready for Valentine’s Day!

Earlier this year, I did a chalkboard mani. I used a basic black, stamped in white, then matted it. I LOVED that mani so much. So, I decided to reboot it.

If I’m being honest, it is a bit of a fail. It was meant to be a black and green gradient, mimicking black and green chalkboards. Unfortunately, the green I picked was a little too dark for a good contrast. I still love it, but if (when) I reboot the gradient, I’ll pick a different green.

In hindsight, this may be where I went wrong. A white base may have provided more contrast. Nothing I can do now, but maybe my fails will make for someone else’s successes!

After that was dry, I used a damp make-up sponge with Hunter and Willa for create the gradient:

You can see the contrast a bit better here, but it is still pretty tough.

Once the gradient was dry, I used the pearl white to stamp:

This is topped with one coat of Seche. I ALWAYS top coat before I put down the matte coat. I can’t speak for all matte top coats, but every one I have tried wrecks nail art if you don’t top coat first.

Once this was dry, I added the matte top coat:

And there ya’ have it! Even if they didn’t come out quite as I had envisioned, they are still super fun and I will do them any chance I have!

What do you think? Do you have any cutsy fun nails that you love to recreate?

Tonight, I bring you nails designed and executed by Mr. Megatuce. Despite having a massive number of plates, I did not have a troll, which was his first choice. No gnomes or leprechauns. So he settled for unicorns and mermaids.

They didn’t turn out too bad, did they?? This was his first time painting and stamping! Here’s some of the highlights:

Laying down a coat of Cult Cosmetics Yuna. So far so good…

This is where I mentioned clean-up brushes. All caution went out the window!

But he did clean them up quite nicely.

I’m kind of surprised, honestly. He painted my toes once when I was pregnant, but nothing like this. I wonder if he secretly practices…?

Hi there! I’m sure everyone is gearing up for New Year’s parties tonight, but I’m going to share my peacock gradient mani and then I’m hitting the sack! At least, that’s the plan. In reality, I’ll probably get side-tracked looking through blogs and IG then BAM!! It’ll be midnight and I’ll be exhausted all day tomorrow again. Totally worth it.

So, enough jabbering. Here is my peacock mani:

I’m a fan of this one. So much so that I forgot to take a picture of what I used. But I will fill in the details as I go.

First, I started with one coat of OPI’s My Boyfriend Scales Walls just to lay a foundation. MBSW is one of my favorite nail art bases, because it isn’t a stark white. I think it usually provides a nice contrast. Here, though, I covered it up. It looked like this before I covered it:

When I don’t cover it, I always use two coats. It is (obviously) not a one coater.

Once MBSW was dry, I sponged on a gradient of OPI Yodel Me On My Cell and piCture pOlish Moscow:

I use a damp non-latex make-up sponge to create my gradients. This one looks a little wonky in some places, but since I was stamping over it, I wasn’t too concerned.

I added the peacock stamp using Messy Mansion plate 14 and my own polish is Apricot.

This is topped with a coat of Seche.

Apricot has made the initial cut and will likely head out to my testers for their opinions soon. So it is possible this one may be headed for my first release, but I’ll probably switch the name up!